


enough

by restmyheadatnightcontent



Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Insecure Jaskier | Dandelion, Light Angst, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:20:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26932021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/restmyheadatnightcontent/pseuds/restmyheadatnightcontent
Summary: Jaskier has spent his whole life trying to get people to like him and he just wants someone who wants him to stay.He's not had much success but maybe he'll find luck with a grumpy witcher.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 14
Kudos: 145





	enough

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone! like everyone else I watched the witcher and fell utterly in love with the silly bard! turns out I liked him enough to write my first ever fic about him! pls be kind and let me know if you like it and if I need to update any warnings/tags! :)

Jaskier has spent his whole life trying to get people to like him.

When he was younger, when he was still Julian, that came from politeness, dancing, taking his punishments like a man and learning that _no-one cares about your stupid little songs Julian._ He learnt not to cry when some older children locked him in a cupboard in a hidden corner of the castle for a laugh because _no-one likes a wuss, Julian_. He manages to get enough people to like him that he can convince them to let him run away, to escape the suffocating life at court and learn about the world.

Then he went to Oxenfurt and there he learnt that to be liked he needed to be loud and charming and outrageous. He enjoyed it and it worked well enough as he spent his nights drinking in the inns and hopping from bed to bed, every night with someone new and learning more about the world than any dusty books in the library ever could. But no-one ever wanted him to _stay_. He was fun for the night but once the sun rose and he started to show the Jaskier behind the smile, he was tossed out of the bed, leaving a little piece of his heart behind him as he leaves.

As he starts his travels, he learns to use his music to get people to like him. He remembers the feeling that spreads throughout his whole body the first time the audience clapped for _him_ because they liked him and his music. He feels drunk on the knowledge that the cheers are for him and it’s then he knows he’s going to spend his whole life chasing this feeling. He learns the songs that get people singing and to avoid the ones that get him pelted with fruit and bread.

He learns the smile that will get him a free drink, cheaper lodging or just the right amount of eye contact to land himself a night in someone else’s bed. It still doesn’t work well enough to last past the night and sometimes not even through the night as he finds himself somewhere he shouldn’t be _with_ someone he shouldn’t. It is times like these he learns to leave his clothes within easy grabbing distance and the safest to way to jump out of a window and to laugh as he is run out of yet another town chased by an angry spouse. He has to laugh because otherwise, he thinks, he’ll start to cry.

He just wants to be _enough_ for someone. He wants someone who sees past the performers smile and the learned confidence and the winks and the mask he wears. Someone who doesn’t want ‘Jaskier, world renowned bard’. Someone he can just be himself with. Someone who wants him for something more than a break from the monotony of married life. Someone he can spend the morning with. Someone who will let him stay. Someone who wants to keep him.

He can’t figure out if Geralt wants to keep him.

Everything he says makes Jaskier think that he doesn’t want him around, what with all the _fuck off, bards_ and _if you play that song again, I’ll throw that lute into the river_ and _you’re more trouble than you’re worth_ as Geralt is pulling him out of reach of a punch that is heading straight for Jaskiers mouth.

But he does pull him away. And he lets Jaskier ride Roach when he feels like he is about to collapse after days and days of walking. It’s the fact that Geralt always waits for him to wake up before they move on, despite his grumbling that he’ll leave Jaskier behind in the next town. It’s a cloak draped over his shoulders as he tries to soak up as much heat from the meagre fire they have in their camp on another cold night in the forest. A hand on his shoulder stopping his nervous pacing the moments before a big performance. A listening ear as Jaskier rambles about something insignificant and unimportant that has been in his brain for days and he just needs to get it out.

Geralt is perhaps the first person in years who is seeing _Jaskier_ and doesn’t seem to mind. He’s letting him stay.

Maybe this time Jaskier can be _enough._


End file.
